Reclaim Your Focus – HUGE Benefits
As we look around the room we can notice, with appreciation, the things that we see that are sitting around. This noticing bring our attention, our awareness into the present moment. This is a simple exercise that we can do momentarily throughout the day whenever we feel distracted or preoccupied.
We can scale this up further by, then noticing and actually searching out and discovering, amazing and beautiful and new things going on in the world, in nature, in people, in the universe. Then appreciation itself gets scaled up. Awe and wonder, delight and discovery are so energizing. Then creativity get scaled up because that is what divine energy loves to do best – create – witness whole infinite, endless galaxies and universes of creation, the proliferation of seeds from a single maple tree.
Inspiration is spirit/spirituality moving through you. Then you are no longer striving after spirituality. Spirituality is then moving through you like an open window, delighting in discovery, energizing you and inspiring creativity in unison with the creative impulse of all there is. Spirituality moving through you is open to learning new things and creating new skills. This continual updating can be a source of inspiration and satisfaction. Tune in, tune up.
This intentional noticing is not the same as mindless distraction. Staying connected to our ever-evolving world reinforces a can-do attitude of self-competence that is very rejuvenating!
Recovery is Cleaning Your Window Pain.
It is extremely important to become aware of and to acknowledge the beliefs we carry about ourselves and about our abilities and self-worth that been have shaped by past events and conditioning from our childhoods and the societies that we were born into. We can then forgive ourselves for having mistakenly allowed these things to color our beliefs about ourselves. Forgiveness is often mistaken for thinking that we are condoning past events. Forgiveness actually just means that we are supplying energy for change.
Even though The Law of Attraction states that we create our own reality, it is still no cause for a dismissive attitude. “Well, you just brought it upon yourself”. For example, when things get old and wear out that is simply a product of living in the physical world. Such things cannot be considered “your fault.” Likewise, being born into an abusive family or a war zone is rather a circumstance where compassion is called. Compassion towards oneself is not self-pity. Self-pity is confining. It’s time and energy consuming. Compassion is freeing.
People Tend to Feel the Worse When They Have Nothing Else to Occupy their Minds
Frequently, much of many people’s lives gets squandered away, as they find themselves wallowing in the past and addictively obsessing over it. How many people find themselves so endlessly preoccupied with the past that they have no focus left over to read, take in information or learn anything new?
They, and of course we ourselves, then feel drained, depressed and overwhelmed. Sometimes this creates extreme circumstances, similar to a sugar crash and a sugar high, where we might find ourselves digging ourselves out of a hole one day and peeling ourselves off the ceiling the next. Responsibility should not be confused with self-blame. Responsibility is response-ability.
No wonder many people self-medicate, just to give themselves a few moments a day of peace and a few moments of healing laughter. For this reason, it’s not fair to judge other people based on where they are on the continuum of their unfolding. People tend to do the best they can to meet their needs based on where they are in any time and place and with the resources they have, even psychologically.
The culture we live in exploits that natural tendency in people by aggressively marketing every numbing junk food, alcoholic beverage, medication, pain reliever, band-wagon fad, fear-mongering story and anti-depressant it can. A fearful, numbed-out population is easier to manipulate and profit from.
The goal of recovery is to have a clean window to view out of, so then what?
Make the Most of Your Time. Reclaim Your Focus.
Then we become the co-creators we were always meant to be and we get to do it in the material world for the short time we are here – a material world full of color, sound, taste and “stuff” to play with and create with and with which to hopefully make the world a better place for all and all future generations, as well!
There is one mind (one that goes by many names), one awareness, shining through many minds giving us individual experiences and points of view from which to see.
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
What do little children have more of than anything else? Curiosity and energy.
What do they love to do more than anything else? Explore the world. Experiment. Learn new things.
Little children still have clean windows. They don’t dwell in the past.
Energy Follows Focus and Creates More of What You Focus On
Communication
Wayne Dyer said, “You are not a victim of the world. When you affirm things like, You make me mad, this situation is upsetting me, I can’t believe you are treating me this way, etc., you start playing the victim game. Take responsibility for your own thoughts, your own feelings and actions and by doing so you will no longer give your power away to forces outside yourself.”
For example. what would you like your communication with others to accomplish?
Have them feel warm and comfortable talking to you?
Have them feel relaxed in your presence?
Have them feel confident around you?
Make people laugh so they experience joy and look forward to interacting with you?
Have people feel interested so they become engaged and be open to what you have to offer?
Preventing Venting
Many people think it is more important that they vent their rage, frustrations and disappointment on others because it makes them feel better in the moment that they fire it off. Are they then showing regard for the people they are dumping it on? Do they then find themselves wondering why people are not open to what they have to say.? Do they have to keep backtracking to mend their relationships and hope the relationships have not been irremediably damaged, damaged beyond repair? Are they going around and around in a rabbit hole, around and around like hamsters in a cage?
It’s not fair to judge other people based on where they are on the continuum of their unfolding.
This process consumes huge amounts of time, energy and focus on exactly the things neither party wants and both parties end up feeling dismissed, misunderstood, manipulated and judged.
When people identify with their victimhood they feel justified in dumping their process on other people and then those people feel that their time and goodwill is being hi-jacked. All that does is perpetuate the misdirection of focus and create distraction.
And since energy and manifestation follows focus they attract more of what they don’t want.
If we think we have a thing-about-this or a thing-about-that then indeed we do. “That’s just who I am” can be reframed and changed, freeing us from confining pigeon holes.
I Think I Can, I Think I Can, I Think I Can” – The Little Engine That Could
It is said that:
If you think you can’t, you can’t.
If you think you’re stuck in a rut, you are.
If you think maybe you can, you open the door to “yes.” Yes I can.
Children don’t give up after a number of attempts when they repeatedly fall down as they are learning to walk. They don’t give up if people tell them they might as well give up because they tried it a few times and it didn’t work. They keep trying until they can walk.
“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.”– William Feather
Delivery
A soft-voiced, calm, centered delivery can only come from a calm, peaceful, centered person. Expression from a ground of calm centeredness is fertile ground from which joy, and enthusiasm can blossom. Not only within one’s self but this vibratory state will attract, will manifest, more of the same and be reflected in the people all around and in the kinds of people you attract to you.
Peace comes from peaceful people. Anger at injustice is impotent if it is not followed by action that demonstrates/personifies more peace, justice and equality.
Putting People on Pedestals – What Goes up Must Come Down
As human beings we all have unfortunate tendencies that we have inherited from society and our upbringings. We are in a process of evolving past these, however, as we notice that these tendencies are frequently reinforced and even intentionally promoted by those who derive profit from them.
Sports Talk shows or Entertainment Today type shows are good examples of how this process works. Very young athletes or entertainers are placed on pedestals and lauded as role models and spokespersons to be looked up to and admired. Many times those young people don’t have the experience to know how to handle the strain of so much attention and ego stroking. If they are earning a lot of money, they suddenly find themselves besieged from all sides and do not, then, know who to trust. They might not have mentors they feel they can trust who could steer them in the right direction.
Of course this does not only apply to young people. People of any age tend to stumble every once in a while for whatever reason, especially when they are weathering the strain of always being in the public eye. Many people are actually afraid of success for precisely this reason.
If and when they stumble, they are suddenly toppled from their pedestals by the viewers at large who suddenly find themselves elevated in relation to “Those Failures.” (“ I knew all along their true colors!” they smugly think.) The sense of superiority that they derive, themselves, from this establishes them on their own pedestals as they sit judging on their couches, doing and risking nothing. Of course this illusion does not last. Putting ones-self or anyone else on a pedestal just insures they have more distance to fall.
What a seesaw! And what a distraction! What a theft of focus! Of course, on a subconscious level, people feel the stress of the injustice of this as they reach for their comfort food.
Not to worry though, more cheese doodles are always available! This is a great way to sell cheese doodles and corn chips, the diabetes express (“Let them eat cake”.) Soap operas are called soap operas because they were originally developed to sell soap. This is an example of corporate media doing it’s job. This instills or reinforces attitudes into people that they then tend to carry as habits and ways of being into other parts of their lives, creating more strife in need of comfort. Pedestalizing can contaminate relationships with co-workers, family members and friends.
5 Rules of Self Motivation to Be Different and Make a Difference!
Motivation is not a product of external influence; it is a natural product of your desire to achieve something and your belief that you are capable of doing so.
Positive, pleasure-oriented goals are much more powerful motivators than negative fear-based ones. The right combination of both is the most powerful motivating mix. An example of a fear based motivation might be, “If I don’t exercise I might not have any energy and be depressed.” The positive pleasure-oriented goal could be, “If I exercise, I’ll feel great and have more fun.”
Start with visualizing clearly your future success and tune into the feelings you’ll experience when you achieve it.
Mentally walk the path towards this success and tune into your feelings at different milestones on the way. Noticing and celebrating your successes keeps you motivated.
Break down the tasks into doable chunks, steps that it will take to achieve the larger goal so you don’t feel overwhelmed or discouraged thinking you are facing a daunting task. Then assign a high priority to the smaller tasks.
Sometimes we may think, for example, that learning a language is a daunting task. Little children do it everyday and never give it a second thought. They just do it.